Government report blames zoo for leopard's death

Apr. 27, 2012

A report released this week by the United States Department of Agriculture blames the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium for the death of one of the six animals taken from Terry Thompson's farm in October. / Submitted file photo

Written by

Hannah Sparling

Staff Writer

ZANESVILLE -- The United States Department of Agriculture blames the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium for the death of one of the six animals taken from Terry Thompson's farm in October, according to a report released this week.

The 1-year-old spotted leopard, named Anton, was euthanized in January after an accident at the zoo. A zookeeper was moving the leopard between cages for routine cleaning and feeding when the leopard darted back into the first cage as the door was closing. The door struck the leopard, causing irreversible spinal cord damage, Tom Stalf, the zoo's operating officer, said previously.

The USDA inspection was conducted Feb. 17, and the report attributes the death to an insufficient number of employees and inadequate training.

"Closing the shift door at the wrong time and not having enough people present to shift the cat safely directly resulted in the cat's death," the report states, adding that the employee conducting the cage shift had been on leave for an "extended amount of time" and had not been properly briefed and retrained on how to use the door.

The zoo was not penalized or fined for the incident, and a follow-up inspection March 20 notes the zoo implemented programs to properly address the issues, USDA spokesman Dave Sacks said.

"Safeguards were in place so that something like this would not happen again. That closes the matter for us at USDA. We will not open up an investigation into this matter because ... we're pleased with how the facility took care of things," he said.

Anton was one of six exotic animals to survive the Oct. 18 incident during which Thompson set free 56 animals from his Kopchak Road farm, then killed himself. Law enforcement killed 48 of the animals and two others are believed eaten by tigers.

The surviving six were placed under quarantine at the zoo.

Marian Thompson has asked for a hearing to appeal the quarantine order. It has twice been postponed but is set for Monday.

Zoo spokeswoman Patty Peters said she is surprised the USDA report is getting as much attention as it is.

"All it really does is confirm what we reported when it happened in January," she said. The USDA inspector "came to the same conclusion that we did, that it was human error.